Using NASA Resources to Better Inform Wildlife Conservation in the Anthropocene: Spatially Predicting Impacts of Anthropogenic Nightlight and Noise on Wildlife Habitat Integrity Across the Contiguous

Our collaborator and end-user, the US National Park Service (NPS), has policy and legislative mandates to conserve acoustic and night sky environments unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations. The rapid and unprecedented spread of anthropogenic nightlight and noise (ANLN) across the contiguous US jeopardizes wildlife conservation in the park network; however, the effects at landscape scales are relatively unknown and unmapped. Thus, decision-support tools that allow land managers to more effectively allocate resources toward the management of these novel stimuli on wildlife habitats and corridors across the park network are urgently needed. This proposal defines a project between early-career faculty with a shared interest in developing cutting-edge tools for conservation through a collaborative research effort that combines global leadership and expertise in anthropogenic sensory stimuli on mammals and birds (Barber & Francis respectively) with state-of-the-art spatial analyses (Carter). This project builds on a well-defined track record of understanding and demonstrating the effects of human activities on wildlife (Stoner) using a functional sensory ecology approach and, combined with NASA (VIIRS, MODIS, and Landsat) and NPS products (soundscape) and expertise (Molthan), developing spatially-explicit indices of risk from ANLN for mammals and birds of conservation significance across the contiguous US. Additionally, this project will include quantitative prediction of ANLN impacts on habitat quality and connectivity across space using extensive datasets on mammal and bird distributions and avian reproductive success to maximize utility for the NPS and inter-agency partners. The geospatial framework we propose to generate will provide the NPS with a data-driven approach to identify priority locations for mitigation and forecast benefits. Algorithms, visualizations, and geospatial products from the project will be transferred to the NPS end-user and their inter-agency partners to guide policy and management decisions. Transition of products will be facilitated through: a shared postdoctoral researcher; annual team summits; regular conference calls and resource briefs; detailed methods documents; and product integration into end-user information systems. As the project proceeds, the NPS will assume greater responsibility for translating project products into action in National Park units and large landscape networks. A key outcome will be the identification of communities and park units whose reduction of noise and light pollution would yield the greatest benefits for large landscape conservation. By taking advantage of the NPS’ tremendous educational resources and inter-agency networks, project insights about ANLN impacts have the potential to reach millions of park visitors annually through educational programs and interpretative signs, and reach millions more through websites and other types of outreach. As a result, project outcomes will significantly improve upon NPS’s current baseline performance standard. Several measures of project benefits will be tracked. One example is the number of NPS facility, maintenance, and transportation management projects that utilize the project tools in the planning process. Another example is NPS monitoring of sites where mitigation has been implemented to measure changes in noise and light levels before and after. A third example is the number of Landscape Conservation Cooperative networks that adopt the tools into their planning processes. Realization of this broader partnership will be accelerated by the scientific findings of this project.